The disclosures herein relate generally to computer systems and more particularly to a method and system for manufacturing a computing product with the assistance of a wireless information network.
For many computer makers who manufacture computing products (CPs) such as personal computers (PCs) at a massive production scale, customizations of the products have caused a major setback in terms of the productivity of their manufacturing process. The time and engineering effort spent for each customization is a significant part of the manufacturing process. For example, the computer makers implement the customizations for end-users or customers by selectively installing software products or modules specially configured for the customers, which may contain an Operating System (OS), and numerous drivers and applications. Without an appropriate customization completed for the customer at the computer makers"" sites, the customer would have to configure the CP extensively. Conventionally done in a streamlined manufacturing assembly line, the CP must be assembled with appropriate hardware components. Needed software and corresponding configuration data are then downloaded into each CP through a computer network or other medium (such as CD-ROMs) in the factory. All these must be done before the CP is packaged or boxed for shipping.
While manufacturing the CPs, major brand bearers such as Dell USA will use a number of OEM manufacturers who provide assembled CPs with standard hardware and software setups or standard components. The brand bearer has to configure the features of the assembled computing products so that they will meet the requirements of its customers. In the conventional manufacturing process, the packaging of the CPs delivered to the brand bearer has to be opened or destroyed to get the CPs running so that the configurations can be completed. This adds time and material cost for the manufacturing process. Moreover, once the configuration is done, the CPs have to be repackaged for shipping.
As more components of the CPs are standardized, more functions or features of these products are controlled or even provided by software (e.g. soft modems). Therefore, the level of requirement to customize the hardware is decreasing dramatically, while the software configuration becomes increasingly important. Given this technology advancement, it is thus desirable to configure the computing products according to customer configurations at the late stages of the manufacturing process, or even more desirable to be able to change the configurations after the computing products are packaged.
Another cumbersome and costly process for the CP manufacturers is to monitor the process flow to ensure all CPs shipped out meet the factory defined quality standards. Various communication events need to occur between CPs in the assembly line and control computers in the factory which monitor and track the production information. For example, information such as software download, information on the system hardware configuration and burn-in history are closely monitored over a wired Local Area Network connection through an input/output (I/O) port on each CP. Through this I/O connection, the factory server is aware of information such as burn-in failures and software download problems. However, while moving the CP through the assembly line flow, the CP can not stay connected all the time, and it has to be powered down and up for multiple times for different areas of the assembly. Even if the CP is turned on all the time, at least the I/O connection must be established and canceled while the CP is moved from place to place due to physical limitations of the wired manufacturing environment. It is understood that the physical act of repetitively connecting and disconnecting the I/O port in each CP exposes the CP to product reliability problems or to a high level of risk of being damaged.
When the CPs are successfully assembled and tested, the finished CPs are stored temporarily as finished goods inventory (FGI) in a storage place, and shipped out to customers by trucking. The location change of the CPs is tracked by the factory control computers using the bar codes attached to the CPs. During this process, operators have to scan the finished CPs to notify the computer servers in multiple occasions or locations in the assembly process until eventually moving them onto trucks. All these being done manually, there is no automated process for assuring the products are routed to the trucks destined for desired locations after they are placed into FGI.
Therefore, what is need is a monitoring system that can wirelessly track and monitor each necessary step of the manufacturing process without being restricted by the limitations of the wired manufacturing environment.
One embodiment accordingly, provides a method of manufacturing a computer system in a manufacturing facility. The manufacturing process starts from installing a wireless communication subsystem on the computer system, and allows information exchanges to be made wirelessly by the computer system and a manufacturing control computer to complete manufacturing the computer system.
The principal advantage of this embodiment that the manufacturing productivity is greatly improved and that the work flow for manufacturing computing products is further automated.